Hi, this is VeronicaT. This is my first fanfic that I've ever published, and I hope you guys like it.

Rated 'M' because of language, suggestive comments, and (in later chapters) sex.

Summary:

When Rose disappears from court, after being let out of prison, there is only one person who can bring her back. The person who claims that his love has faded. Dimitri. When Dimitri starts to have nightmares about Rose's death, he wonders if he could have inherited his grandmother's supernatural witch powers. Rose is looking for Lissa's brother and The queen's murderer, and Dimitri is looking for the love of his life; Rose.

Her cherry red lips were exceptionally bright as a dribble of blood was pushed forward by her tongue, like she was trying to push it out of the way of her airways. She gasped but nothing but a gurgle escaped her lips.

"Rose?" I whispered, pressing my hand against the bullet wound, blood swelling under my palm. My guess was that the bullet had fractured her sternum, probably hitting the trachea and possibly even the heart.

She choked again, a bubble of blood and saliva sliding from the corner of her mouth and down into her hair. "Rose?" I said again, this time louder and more franticly.

I pulled her up and onto my lap with the hand that wasn't trying to stop the bleeding and I supported her head with my upper arm, "Roza! Stay with me! Don't you dare close your eyes!" I said, grabbing her hand and squeezing.

Another large spurt of blood left her mouth and nose, covering the lower half of her face in the sticky crimson liquid. She stared up at me with huge dark eyes, like she was telling me that she trusted me and knew that I would be able to get her out of this. The she closed her eyes.

"No! No! No! No!" I shouted, switching hands and using the hand that was previously pressing down on the wound to hold her head up, "Don't go, Rose!" I said, "You better not leave me, you have to stay!"

I was frantic then. I knew that she was dying, and it would take a miracle to pull her back from the precipice.

"Please don't leave me." I whispered again, feeling the tears build behind my eyes. I blinked, knowing that if I cried, she would know.

She would know she was going to die.

She opened her eyes again. They looked so big and innocent, like a deer caught in the headlights, that I had to gasp for air, struggling as hard as I could against the tears that were muddling my vision and threatening to overflow.

I started a rocking motion, "Roza." I whispered, burying my face in her hair, and inhaling her intoxicating scent, trying to commit it to memory, "Stay with me."

I pulled back and looked into her eyes again, a dry sob escaped from my chest, but I still held back from crying

Her hand covered mine and she attempted a squeeze before she reached up to touch my face. Then her hand pulled a lock of my hair loose so that it drooped down. She then gently wrapped it around her fingers, holding it like it was her lifeline.

"Com…" she choked out through the blood. She coughed and tried again, "Com…Comr…"

"Comrade." She finally mumbled before another wave of blood filled her mouth.

"I'm here Roza. I'm here," I told her, continuing the swaying motion.

She blinked and smiled, a tear slipped from one of her eyes. Her lips moved again, but no words came out. I knew that her lungs were then so full of blood that it was all bubbling up her throat and out of her nose and mouth

She tried feverishly to say something but finally gave up and stared up at me with huge brown eyes. Her tears came harder, like she wanted to tell me something so important it couldn't wait until we were both reunited in the next life.

I nodded, slowly letting out a shaky breath. The tears built up to a point that they spilled out, running down my cheeks until they fell on her face.

"I love you too, Roza." I told her, looking her straight in her eyes.

My body shook when she smiled sadly up at me. Then she put one hand on my chest, directly over my heart, the one that had still been wrapped in my hair loosened and started to drop, but I removed my hand from her chest, instead holding her falling hand up in my hair. Then I lowered my face down to hers to press our lips together for my last bloody kiss.

"I love you," I whispered again when I pulled, but back her eyes were glazed over. I whipped a few tears off of her cheek with my thumb, but her eyes just stared glassily into mine.

My heart shattered. My world shattered.

You will lose what you value most.

It wasn't my life… It wasn't even my soul.

What you value most.

It was Rose.

I woke wheezing, clutching at the memory foam pillow that was tucked under the covers next to me. I swallowed hard, and rubbed at the damp trails on my face that the tears had made and sat up in bed.

The room was almost pitch black, other than the little sliver of light that was peaking though the gap in the curtains, casting a rosy rectangle of light to fall on the floor next to my bed.

I squeezed my eyes shut tight, still shaking from the dream. It was still fresh in my mind; tears, blood, eyes. Rose.

My sleep for the past month and a half was constantly a mixture of wet dreams and nightmares. All of them were about Rose, tonight's by far being the foulest and most graphic of all.

I disentangled the covers from my legs and swung them out of bed, wincing at the feel of the icy wooden floor against the soles of my feet. I quietly padded over to the door, hearing the electric whir of the coffee pot.

Once I stepped into the other room I was momentarily blinded by the light, before my eyes accommodated to the bright fluorescents. Dylan was sitting at the kitchen counter, one of his school books propped open against the milk jug and his glasses perched precariously on the bridge of his nose.

Dylan had been the only Mori they were agreeable to assign me too, seeing as I was on the bottom of the list for apt guardians ever since Valissa had turned me back into a Damphir. I didn't really blame the guardian council for still finding me treacherous, but sometimes I wished I could have still been assigned to the Princess.

I yawned and poured myself a cup of coffee, opening two packages of sugar and dumping them both in before stirring.

"You've been moaning in your sleep lately," Dylan told me, removing the glasses from his nose and looking towards me.

I was momentarily startled, "Have I?" I asked regaining composure and taking a sip of coffee, which scalded my tongue. Cussing in my native language I set it down, taking the milk jug from the counter and pouring some into my mug, trying to get it to cool down.

Dylan nodded, shifting his textbook so that it was lying flat on the table, "Nightmares?" he inquired quietly, not looking up from his physics book.

He had no idea.

I didn't answer so he continued, "You're not looking so hot today, why don't you take the night off, I'm sure that there's not a huge Strigoi threat tonight. And even if there was, they wouldn't dare mess with me and my awesome earth manipulating powers."

Yawning again I realized that I really wasn't feeling very well, "Maybe you're right, I haven't been feeling good lately. I'm probably not getting enough sleep."

"Yeah, go back to bed," Dylan said, biting his lip as he poured over his homework. Then he slammed his book shut, "Damn, I hate collage." He stated quietly, stuffing his book into his backpack. His glasses slipped off of the end of his nose, and I heard the little crack of shattering glass as they hit the floor.

"Oh, fuck it!" he muttered while I retreated back into the bedroom, "I'm getting contacts!"

I had to laugh at him sometimes so I chortled as I shut the door to my room and was submerged back into soothing darkness. I crossed the room and made to pull the drapes shut, blocking out the sliver of light that had managed to get through.

I stretched and opened the bathroom door, tuning on the light and looking at myself in the mirror. Since the beginning of this month my eyes had developed dark purple bags and my shoulder length brown hair was sticking up haphazardly. I attempted to smooth it down but once my fingers were done combing through it, little locks just stuck up again.

I sighed tiredly and stretched, walking back to bed after turning off the light. I sat there for a while, listening to a light but steady drum of rain against the window pane of our flat.

But I couldn't doze off, for every time I closed my eyes an image of Rose, her face covered in blood and her vast brown eyes staring up at me, would flash across the back of my eyelids.

I sighed, seizing my phone from the night side table and checking the time.

7:43 in the afternoon.

Valissa should be waking up about now because she was running on the standard nocturnal vampire schedule, just like I was.

I stared at the phone for a moment before finding her name in my contacts and pressing the call button.

She picked up on the first ring, "Hello?" she spoke as though she had been up for a while, though I knew I had probably disturbed her sleep.

"Hello, Valissa," I sprawled across the bed, my hands behind my head, "How are you?"

"I'm doing just fine," she answered, but I could hear the ache in her voice, "I just got back from court,"

This was how all of our conversations went. I called. She picked up. We talked about her. And then we talked about her.

"How is she?" I asked, knowing she would tell me that they were still debating about if she should be executed for murdering the queen, which we both knew that she hadn't.

She didn't answer.

"Valissa?" I heard her audibly swallow then she cleared her throat.

"Dimitri," she said quietly, "They let her out. It turns out that it was one of the royal guards that did it. They stole her stake to frame her. Everyone thinks it was about the new age law."

Her words took a more than a moment to sink in, and when they did my heart skipped a beat, "You mean they aren't going to execute her?" I asked optimistically, felling suddenly light headed and a smile tugging at the edges of my mouth.

"No, Dimitri. They aren't going to execute her."

I exhaled, letting out my breath, releasing the tension that had built in the pit of my stomach for the past month. They were letting her out, there was no chance of her being executed.

She sighed again, "Dimitri…" her voice was aggrieved and ragged, "She left. Rose is gone."

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